The statements in this section merely provide background information related to the present disclosure and may not constitute prior art.
Conventional dependent sprinklers typically disperse the fire suppressant liquid in a substantially uniform radial canopy while balancing the desire to maximize the area of coverage and the need to maintain the density of fire suppressant liquid across the area to be covered above a threshold level, which is set by a uniform standard code.
In sidewall and pitched roof or wall applications, a radial canopy is not necessarily desirable and, in some cases, is undesirable. In sidewall applications, the goal is to deliver fire suppressant to the wall or walls at the sprinkler location and to the walls across from the sprinkler and to deliver fire suppressant across the floor area between the walls, which typically cannot be achieved efficiently using a radial canopy. Heretofore, most sidewall sprinklers use the upper half of the suppressant that flows from the outlet of the sprinkler to wet the distant walls (walls across from the sprinkler and distant side walls) and the floor area near the distant walls. The lower half of the fire suppressant is then typically used to wet near walls, including the wall on which the sprinkler is mounted, and the floor area surrounding the near walls. It has been found, however, that the density of the fire suppressant at the near walls and near floor areas typically significantly exceeds the density of the fire suppressant at the distant walls and distant floor areas. Hence most conventional sidewall sprinklers are inefficient and tend to waste significant amounts of fire suppressant.
Consequently, there is a need to provide a sidewall sprinkler that can disperse fire suppressant with a more uniform distribution to reduce the amount of fire suppressant that is needed for a given area of coverage.